April 28, 2008

Liberal Party Elects Unilingual President

Edit: I had four different people from different parts of the Liberal Party confirm to me he was not, in fact, bilingual.He will be speaking to the media in the upcoming days and we will be able to see for ourselves.The point of this post was NEVER to smear anyone. I have met Doug Ferguson once, and I admit I did not speak to him in French. He is a good person. I know lots of unilingual good people. If he is bilingual, and not bilingual in the Cory Pike way, but you know, able to speak and comprehend both languages, then I apologize, and I will be very glad to inform the four people who told me otherwise that they were indeed misinformed.I will reiterate again my belief that any official, in any national party ,who speaks on behalf of a national party like a President or National Director, does need to be bilingual.

Sigh. Is it so hard to find someone who can speak two languages in this country?

I know Brigitte is 28 (Happy Birthday Brig!) but at least she took the time to learn English.

Poulin was the first President of the Party since David Johnston to be bilingual. (for the record that was back in 1994)

The point is the Liberal Party would never elect a President who did not speak English.

I know the Tory Party President isn't bilingual either.

Shame on both of them if you ask me.

The Liberals are the party of bilingualism. They should be held to a higher standard. I want to see a Liberal come tell me the LPC would entertain electing a unilingual francophone as Party President.

14 Commentaires:

James, I can count on one hand the number of thing you've written that don't make you out to be a gibbering retard, and this isn't one of them.

I'm a pretty partisan New Democrat, but seeing the Liberal party alienate itself more and more from Quebec really saddens me. A large part of that is due to the Bloc and PQ, of course, which have spent the greater part of two decades slinging mud at the Liberal brand in Québec (a large number of my friends inexplicably think Dion is corrupt!), but pulling things like this really doesn't help. The bigger the amount of federalist parties viable in Québec, the better.

We elected a bilingual Senator to lead our Party at the last convention over a bilingual competitor. Unfortunately for Mr. Ianno, he is bilingual in Italian not French.

The Party apparatus allows for the VP to assume the responsibility of the president until the next convention (this December by the way). As much as I love Brig. and all that stuff, dont you really think that Doug was just slightly more qualified for this job? A lawyer that teaches at the University of Western Ontario.

Organizational Chair of Our party from 98 - 03. Like seriously now. Give your head a shake.

A hell of a lot of Quebecers are worried about the possibility of francophones becoming "just another minority" in Canada, and that includes the soft nationalists who are crucial in any potential referendum. Those very same soft nationalists make up the 10-15% of the Bloc vote that can be swayed to a federalist party in an election (I suspect that 30% might be their floor), and the Liberal party has been doing nothing to win them over. The Bloc vote collapsed, but all of their support moved to the Conservatives and NDP. The Liberals need credible voices in Québec (I think Dion would probably shine as PM if given the chance, but his image has been thoroughly smeared by the seperatists), and acting like french is on equal footing with Italian turns off the people, voters and potential candidates, you need to make the Liberal party a national force again. Incidentally, Martin did manage that feat when he took over as leader, attracting people like Liza Frulla and Jean Lapierre, as well as 100 000 members. He lost that vote through no fault of his own when the sponsorship scandal broke, but there was talk of wiping out the Bloc. That can't happen again unless the Liberals dedicate a serious effort to wooing Quebecers, and Justin Trudeau and Celine Hervieux-Payette don't have what it takes.

At the same time, the Liberal party needs those members much more than the members need the Liberal party, and not making them feel respected, heard and appreciated (by, say, having the president of the Party of Bilingualism not speak French) is sure to make tensions worse, if not intensify them.

For the record, James, Tony Ianno understands and speaks French pretty well.

All three candidates for the party presidency in the last convention spoke French better than our current Prime Minister.

But in Antonio's world. Stephen Harper will remain immune to any such criticism.

I think the attacking from within will eventually subside. In the last two elections the media took great joy in constantly giving air time to a bunch of blowhards who passed themselves off as "liberals" only to fire off their petty and vindictive vitriol at the party. They've pretty much been reduced to a comic role in fourth-tier print media these days, so that's kinda behind us.

That being said, Quebec will remain a tough challenge for Liberals in the near future. But sooner or later the stench of corruption from the sponsorship scandal and its supportive regime will go away. In the meantime, appeasing a bunch of ethnocentrist whackjobs in any province (Whether in Quebec, Newfoundland or Alberta) is not the answer.

If that's where Layton wants to go, so be it. He won't have many seats to show for it.

Tony has come a loooong way with his French. He spent a lot of time prior to the convention working on it. He speaks Gerard type French right now. I can tell you though he is very fluent in Italian. Now Joe Volpe...that guy can speak French.

Some might argue that the Tories benefitted from very low expectations when they charged so unbelievably into Quebec in 2006.

I think that is possible, but the Tory President didnt do nearly as much media as Liberal Presidents have in the past. Maybe Ferguson will stay away from the media. Eizenga didnt. LeDrew still hangs around.

I have always said important party officials should be bilingual. That goes for every national political party. It is insulting to French Canadians.

HE IS BILINGUAL...I've had to pleasure to work with him on his VP English campaign during the convention... Il a un excellent français, meilleur que celui de certains conservateurs siégeant présentement en chambre....Et sans doute, son français est meilleur que l'anglais de certains blocquistes représentant des communautés anglophones minoritaires.